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agnosticism

Many mistake the term ‘atheism’ as a belief system or a set of beliefs that are abided by, by a person who adopts a stance that renders them a non-believer. This is a common misconception. Atheism, in fact, is the antithesis of that notion. It is the lack of belief. It describes someone who does not believe in a god or gods as that person is simply stating that there is no credible evidence to support this fantastic notion. Ultimately it is a rather silly word. There does not seem to be an equivalent for someone who does not believe in say, fairies; how many times have you heard someone described as a ‘non fairy believer’? I would doubt if you had heard the term at all.

I am an atheist. I observe no credible evidence that supports the idea of a god or gods. My stance is that there is in fact no evidence that would support the idea despite there being many arguments for a gods existence. But none of these cannot be explained by scientific proofs that are, for me, more credible as they are supported by evidence. Evidence, is truly, the most important thing. Otherwise we are leading ourselves into delusion.

It is true however, that it is impossible to actually be an atheist in the strictest possible sense, as we cannot positively say there is no god. I can’t prove this statement. Neither can I prove that every night at precisely 3am a monster made of baked beans does not creep into my room and whisper the secret to making the best baked beans into my ear when I sleep, this monster only shows up if I am sleeping so I can’t prove this claim. What can be said is that it is extremely unlikely. Therefore there is no such thing as an atheist, but rather agnostics. Atheism is a term bandied around therefore for ease of expression. Food for thought.